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Topic: PodXAX! (Read 3593 times)

Neil and I have been talking for awhile in the shoutbox about starting a podcast. One day I was saying how I'm fed up with how all the ones I subscribe to suck and yet I still listen to them day after day, and he said 'Let's do a podcast!' I would've never conceived of that idea myself, but his suggestion sparked it and I just thought "If I'm ever gonna make one, gotta start somewhere." I think we'd be a funny match for how much we've had our feuds through the years, I would hope that shit is behind us. Just a couple of newbs trying to get a leg up on eachother. In any case, conflict makes for good radio.

Like I've said before, my brother and I have had countless drunk conversations about doing one, but have simply never gotten around to it. He wants to do a music podcast where him and his friends jam and then they have a hangout with the musicians. I'm more interested in just the hangout. Like I said to Neil, it could be a 'get to know ya' type of thing. Where we both prepare questions for each other that would be kind of irrelevant or inappropriate for xixax. This won't be limited to just Me and Neil, I'd like to 'get to know' all of ya! I think it would be a cool way to see the losers on here as real people. Put a voice to their words. I don't have any ideas for now beyond that, but I've listened to so many podcasts over the past 2 years that I feel like their rhythm is ingrained in me. Once we do a little brainstorming on this I think we might have something!

Now, sound off with what you'd like to hear. This will obviously be a very Xax heavy podcast, maybe there could be different topics surrounding that. What do you guys have to suggest that would make this good? Any comments and contributions are welcome.

I have many opinions on podcasts, so I'll try to keep this first post concise...

I'm not so sure about the "getting to know you" format. This may sound harsh but that format will be interesting to almost no one. The worst podcasts in my opinions are the "friends just hanging out, joking with each other, talking about their lives and what they're doing, trying to be maximally clever for the audience" podcasts. Personally I have a very low tolerance for those podcasts, and there's no shortage of them.

Two things make a great podcast: structure and topics. You need to have both to some degree. If you're a bit light on one, you better be heavy on the other.

Creating structure doesn't have to be complex. Pick a topic to discuss. Have segments. If you just randomly flow from one thing to another, an hour long podcast feels like 2 hours. The structure can even change from episode to episode, but having some kind of structure is such a relief for the listener.

Structure can also come in the form of games, trivia, etc. That takes a bit of effort, but it's worth it if you feel like doing that.

How Did This Get Made gets away with a very light structure because it's so topic-focused. Slate's Culture Gabfest is a good example of moderate structure: low culture topic, high culture topic, third topic, recommendations.

Then there are the highly-structured podcasts, like Judge John Hodgman (moderately high structure) and International Waters (super structured). Just try out one episode if you want to hear how the best podcasts are made.

I've only listened to a few podcasts regularly, but the ones that seem to have me sticking around leave me feeling better about the interests I have. I used to listen to SMODCast but grew tired of that the more Smith sold out and lost himself in a haze of weed. In the past it was the LOST podcast, and recently it was the Breaking Bad insider one, both which gave insights into the show. There was another fan made LOST cast that was good because it had in depth discussions about the theories and whatnot. Ditto with Breaking Bad. There was a podcast I think called Breaking Good, fan made and decent enough, though I only listened to a couple episodes.

My love of Community brought me to Harmontown. I would compare Kevin Smith and Dan Harmon in that they're both jaded, middle-aged men whose mouths get them in trouble and can be very funny. Dan is more of a snob. Just loved to shit on things he doesn't deem worthy, and his tastes are odd. He is more learned than Kevin, cerebral, but stutters a lot. What they both have going for them is a blunt, unflinching honestly. What also makes the Harmontown podcast is a cast of supporting characters and some good guest stars (he's had Bobcat Goldthwait, Greg Proops, and even Robin Williams (even after voicing his disdain for Good Will Hunting)). Harmontown's best episodes get into philosophical discussions about current events and show a wide variety of points of views.

My point in all this, keep it unflinchingly honest and tell us something we don't know, something we can use to better our lives. Harmontown nowadays runs an hour and a half to two hours these days. No way you can do that now. I'd say if you can fill fifteen minutes commenting on coming and current releases and 'xax news, you'll do well.

JB's advice is sound. Harmontown does the games/trivia thing, and a few episodes in it started an ongoing D&D campaign. I'm not a D&Der myself but it was still fun to follow along with it, and is quite humorous.

But, this still sounds like a lot of fun and i'd like to thank JB and ono for the recommendations. Hopefully i'll listen to those soon, so i can get a good idea for the way things usually go down.

As a student of Mass Communications, my initial reaction was that we need to come up with segments and JB reinforced that.

I'm pretty much in agreement with the 'get to know ya' type thing being a bit mundane, but ideally folks would get to know us through our personalities.

My question is, how does these typically go down? do all of these take place live, or do some involve post production work etc where as others are just live? How does that work? What other podcasts are there where people are geographically apart from one another?

Creating structure doesn't have to be complex. Pick a topic to discuss. Have segments.

You're right. My favorite podcast right now is 'Who Charted?' and I think it's the most topical and structured show I've ever listened to. I like how they don't have to take the topics seriously because they always have the structure to fall back on, and most of the fun in the show comes out of derailing the attention from the charts to learn more about the guest. I agree that no one necessarily wants to hear Me & Neil ramble on and tell our life stories, but if we're going to do anything it has to start with a rapport. So I think a test run is in order just to talk about what we like in our favorite shows and where could we take it that would possibly have some degree of originality. Geez, I've never even talked to Neil over PM, this is gonna be weird.

do all of these take place live, or do some involve post production work etc where as others are just live? How does that work? What other podcasts are there where people are geographically apart from one another

We don't want to do it Live, that's for pros. A lot of people do post production, and have their own sound effects for bits, songs, etc. Some people just press record and literally put the 2 hour conversation out there with no edits. It's a very open format, we can do whatever we want! ( as long as JB finds it suitable )

an example of a podcast where the hosts are geographically separate is The Auteurcast from our very own Rudie Obias. Every episode is taped over skype with Rudie in NYC and West Anthony in L.A. That's what gave me the idea that this was possible in the first place. I've encountered some major sound problems on their show, hopefully we can nip those in the bud.

You're right. My favorite podcast right now is 'Who Charted?' and I think it's the most topical and structured show I've ever listened to. I like how they don't have to take the topics seriously because they always have the structure to fall back on, and most of the fun in the show comes out of derailing the attention from the charts to learn more about the guest. I agree that no one necessarily wants to hear Me & Neil ramble on and tell our life stories, but if we're going to do anything it has to start with a rapport. So I think a test run is in order just to talk about what we like in our favorite shows and where could we take it that would possibly have some degree of originality. Geez, I've never even talked to Neil over PM, this is gonna be weird.

Okay, you know what to do then. Who Charted is a great example. I love the format of that show and would listen to it all the time if Howard didn't annoy me. Riffing within structure is perfect, even the most structured podcasts do that.

an example of a podcast where the hosts are geographically separate is The Auteurcast from our very own Rudie Obias. Every episode is taped over skype with Rudie in NYC and West Anthony in L.A. That's what gave me the idea that this was possible in the first place. I've encountered some major sound problems on their show, hopefully we can nip those in the bud.

Yeah, most podcasts seem to use Skype. I would also consider using Ventrilo, which is mostly used for gaming, but some podcasts. It's more reliable than Skype. I know of a free server you can connect to if you want to try it out.

Will I be able to use audio clips from movies on youtube in the podcast or do I have to get permission? That would suck...If we couldn't, at least there'd be some creative way to work around it by being overly descriptive.